SL military arrests husbands, sexually harasses wives in Trinco

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 May 2013, 23:51 GMT]
The military intelligence officers of the occupying Sri Lanka Army frequent the houses of former LTTE members and combatants under the pretext of investigations and are attempting to sexually harass the wives while keeping their husbands in prolonged detention, reliable sources in Trincomalee told TamilNet on Monday. The Sri Lankan military officers who came from Kaddai-pa’richchaan camp had arrested 16 men in Moothoor, after the so-called Independence Day celebrations staged by Colombo in Trincomalee on 04 February 2013. All of the victims, except one, are married and have at least two children. They have all been former LTTE members and some of them have married ex-LTTE females. The SL military intelligence operatives from the Kaddai-pa’richchaan camp have been harassing the wives of the detained husbands.

None of the NGOs that showed interest in registering the particulars of their detained husbands have taken any effort in voicing for the release of their husbands or with assisting the families with any humanitarian assistance, the affected families complain.

Ms Kanthapodi, an ex-LTTE fighter who hails from Kumaarapuram in Moothoor, says that the SL military intelligence men, visiting her with claims of investigation, have been attempting to sexually harass her.

Even Sinhala men from nearby villages harass the former LTTE members, she says.

Before she joined the movement, Ms Kanthapodi was living alone with her mother. In 1996, her mother was brutally slain by the SL military inside her house.

After her release from the 2-year-long SL military custody of so-called rehabilitation in 2011, she is now living alone in a hut, which she has put up with the help of the villagers.

Two weeks ago, a person claiming himself as a military intelligence officer arrived at her hut one midnight. When she shouted for help and alerted the neighbours, the villagers caught him red-handed. Later, the Police has said that the so called ‘inquiry officer’ was none other than an ordinary Sinhala person from an adjoining village.

The wives of the 16 ex-LTTE members, who have been taken into custody by the Sri Lankan military, say they have not heard anything about the whereabouts of their husbands.

Many of them in detention have already gone through the so-called rehabilitation and were allowed to reintegrate with their families. But, they have again been arrested this year and it is not known when they would return again.

“Some say they are being kept in Boosa, but we are not allowed to visit them,” a mother of two children said complaining that there have been no response for their complaints with the SL Human Rights Commission, the ICRC and the Sri Lankan Police.

Those taken by the military men include Punniamoorthy Sureskumar (29) of Thangkanakar, Navasivayam Senthuran (28) of Cheanaiyoor, Nadarajah Shanmugalingam (35), Konalingam Chandramohan (34) of Paddiththidal, Tharmathas Thavachelvan (36), Tharmalingam Jeyakaanthan (30), Yogarajah Uthayakumar (32) of Ka'neasapuram, Vadivel Ramu (34) of Ki'liveddi, Rasanayagam Ganesh Ramachandran (28) of Amman-nakar, Subramaniam Mahendran(43) of Ki'liveddi , Vyramuthu Vasanthan (34) of Aathiyamman-kea'ni and four others.